I am honest. Why wouldn’t I be (but to be fair, my salary is searchable online)? I also include that I don’t expect them to be able to compete with benefits, because COME ON, my benefits are the actual top you can get.
This helps give a bit of a push on higher salary though 
“If you have to ask, you cannot afford me. Good day.”
It’s very normal for third-party recruitment companies here in the UK to ask candidates for current salary and expectations. I’ve noticed that recently they have been starting to ask for evidence of current salary.
I guess since they’re working on commission, it’s just a way of filtering candidates to try to weed out the blaggers.
They ask for the same reason that I ask what the pay range will be before I go on an interview.
As an example in my profession. If an employer is looking for a full qualified stationary engineer he had better be willing to pay for one. I found many employers who want an engineer but only wanted to pay handyman wages. What they did not realize was that at their wage they were only getting people who worked on things rather than fixed them.
So as an applicant I wanted to be sure that it was worth my time to go to the interview.
when I hired someone I wanted to know what they were being paid. If they were making $15 an hour chances they were not fully trained and experience. If they were in the $45 range that was an indication of their qualifications.
But they can just ask me for a range of salaries I’d be willing to take. They don’t need to know my actual salary history.
Asking what I’ve actually made in the past is like me asking them for all the salaries of the other people who work there who do the same job, rather than just a range they’d be willing to offer
And hey, I don’t base my salary desires on my past salary anyway. I want more than that. Lots more.
Generally, I found that pay secrecy is more about discussions between existing (salaried) employees; they last thing a company wants is a cascade of “why does Bob get $10,000 more than me and I work harder?” discussions. (Or “Fuck you, Bob. You make $10,000 more than me, dig up your own cost estimates.”) I have trouble imagining the two-tier pay scales in some union settlements over the last decade have done a lot for overall employee morale.
I can’t imagine why an employer would ask or expect a serious answer to “provide salary history”. The ones who would provide the answer you want to hear are likely the ones you don’t want to hire. “Salary expectation” is perfectly normal - as others point out, it stops everyone from wasting time chasing a gold candidate when all you can afford is bronze. OTOH, very few people can write their own tickets - the employers are the ones holding all the cards, typically - so the last thing someone wants to do is overbid their hand or commit themselves to a lowball. I think the employer should state what they are prepared to pay. I have seen hiring discussions along the lines of “Masters’ degree? This guy is grossly overqualified, and as soon has he finds a better position he’ll be gone…”
I did see it backfire the other way once - we needed some minor but drudge-intensive website work done once, and a contact suggested some kid who was barely in university. The guy was very green, and when asked his rate, said $17/hour. At the time minimum wage was about $6 and I suspect he’d not done any paid work for any large businesses yet; after he left, my boss laughed it off and said she’d not even consider anyone who didn’t think he was worth at least twice that.
Ditto. And it’s not as bad for their negotiation as I think a lot of people think it might be. First, it saves them time, as pointed out, because people who want more than that range or maybe think they aren’t worth it won’t even apply, but by providing a range it still gives them room to negotiate and gives the prospective employee an idea of what they can expect.
That is, by applying, you’ve basically already thrown out the first number by saying you’re willing to work in the salary range, essentially with them offering the lower number and you offering the higher number with the presumption that you’ll meet somewhere in between. In short, it basically makes it so both the employer and prospective employee are throwing out their first number simultaneously. At that point, it’s just a matter of who is the better negotiator or has better position. So, it just seems like a win-win to me.
When I was looking for work last year, generally money would come up on an initial phone screen anyway. There was only one position I interviewed for where money hadn’t come up and more or less negotiated first, but that was one I got because I personally knew the project manager. For the rest, we’d gone into the interview with money mostly or entirely already sorted out. At that point, the interview was just a question of whether or not the job was a good fit.
I’m in IT, been in the field for more than 15 years, so the kinds of jobs I apply for usually ask me about salary history (starting and ending salary amounts for each position I’ve held). I keep a document handy with a record of that info in case I need it.
I don’t mind providing that info to a prospective employer. First, I feel that filling out all of the requested info thoroughly and correctly is the first “test” of suitability as an applicant. Secondly, showing a steady increase in my salary within and between positions demonstrates my ability to improve in my value to employers. And finally, they can see what I would expect for a wage if they were to bring me in. I don’t see that last part as a liability; rather if I’m too expensive for them, then it’s not the right place for me, but if they see me as a “bargain” then I’m more likely to receive a job offer.
My current employer asked for a thorough salary history, I provided it, and was eventually offered a starting pay more than $10,000 more than I’ve made in the past. They liked my skills and experience, I interviewed well, and clearly they didn’t feel like lowballing me to save money.
I live in the US in the Pacific Northwest region if that’s helpful.
What you were paid in your last job will an indication of your qualifications. If as a building engineer you were being paid less than $30 an hour I am going to assume you may be a handyman and not a qualified engineer. So what you were being paid is an indication of your qualifications.
Or, you know, you could actually look at the candidate’s résumé and ask them technical questions to evaluate their actual qualifications rather than just make blasé assumptions from a salary history which may be meaningless even if not fraudulent. If I had a prospective employer offering that rationale as a justification for demanding my past compensation I would laugh and walk out of the interview because it admits to a laziness in management that I never again want to work under.
Stranger
Despite these protestations it is a buyers market right now. Employers will ask for salary history to make their job easier, and in most cases they’ll find someone that fits into the salary range and experience level they’re looking for. In a way it tells you the prospect something about the company and the job you are applying for.
It goes back to the basic 4 every employer looks for in an interview:
and 4. How much are you going to cost them?
And remember, your never paid what your worth, your paid for what you negotiate for.
No it is just a quick look to see if you want to continue to read the resume. I won’t go to a job interview with out knowing the salary range. Every time I have it turned out I was wasting my time, I assume the employer will be in the same boat.
Resume can be written in a manner to make the applicant more experience and knowledge than they really have.
If I was hiring an engineer and he did not provide a salary history there would be no interview.
I’ve worked about 18 months at a state university, and have participated in the interview process for another employee there.
The boss that hired me was very straight up about the university’s hiring process. There was an application form and questionnaire. Those forms went directly to HR. If HR feels that you have not met the requirements of the application, those resumes/applications will not be forwarded to the interview team. So, for instance, in my case, the application stated that the applicant should have completed at least 9 semester hours of college coursework in computer science. If the applicant decided that they fit all the other requirements for the job except that one, it didn’t matter — the interviewers never got to see their application. I feel certain the same would have been true if an applicant failed to fill out their salary history.
In my case, I was somewhat screwed over by having to provide the salary history. As in all university positions, the job announcement clearly identified the allowable salary range for the position as well as the expected hiring range. Since I had an advanced degree in the field, 20 years of experience, and several relevant professional certifications as well as direct experience in a very similar position, I assumed that I would be offered a salary at the higher end of the hiring range. As it turns out, I was offered $1000 less than that, and my boss made it clear that this was done entirely by HR, and that he had no ability to change it. I found out later that since I had been a state employee prior to being hired for my position that they have a formula that prevents them from paying you more than a given amount than you were being paid in your previous position. So, since I had been being paid a lousy salary at my old job (my reason for leaving), this prevented me from being paid the amount I would have otherwise been eligible to be paid based upon my qualifications.
Really? I find that to be a really bad way of measuring qualifications.
Why even ask for my qualifications? Just collect everyone’s salary and hire the one with the same salary you want to pay, right?
How about you look at my actual qualifications? Like my job duties and my engineering degree, etc.?
My salary HISTORY doesn’t tell you what I’m going to want for salary though.
Exactly my point.
So can salary histories.
I haven’t made hiring decisions before but I’ve consulted on hiring decisions. The more info you have about a person, the more confident you are to hire them. Sometimes you’ll have 2 or 3 who you like equally well and you’re just looking for something to differentiate them. Something like salary history might be that thing that works as a “tie-breaker”.
Do you want to see me naked and read my diary too?
Some info is private, for a reason. Such as salary history.
Birthdate and SSN are also private for even better reasons but you’d better be ready to disclose that info if you want to work for someone else. You can choose to exclude salary info if you want but you risk self-limiting your employment opportunities.
I respect anyone who does that on principle. And if we’re competing for the same position I especially appreciate it. 